Berkeley's Bumbling Robot Aims To Investigate The State Of Society

from the society-has-a-state? dept

With all the stories showing up about fancier and more "humanlike" robots, here's one that's a bit different. Famed video game creator Will Wright (the Sims) is wandering around Oakland and Berkeley with a bucket o' bolts robot called Slats and a camera crew to see how it reflects "the state of society". Apparently Slats has a very limited vocabulary, but much of it you might not want to let your kids hear. The guy who programmed the robot says he watched a lot of Simpsons, South Park and Twighlight Zone in figuring out what vocabulary to give the robot - which randomly chooses a male or female voice. So far, the only thing the robot team has learned about society is that men have less tolerance for non-sequitor spouting robots. Women, at least, feel sorry for the tin heap, and try to understand what it's trying to say.